Madagascar, the first, wasn't really a movie I warmed up to initially.For one, the animation seemed to lack some of the finesse which we found in other offerings like Shrek and Monsters Inc. For another, the characters were just plain annoying to watch. Now, there is a fine line between humour and just appearing plain stupid, and I feel that Madagascar, at least initially, failed to hit the spot.
Well, now that I have seen Madagascar 2: Escape 2 Africa (see the pun in the title), I'm glad to say, they are bang on target. Indeed, Madagascar 2 picks up on the points which made the original movie funny, and have tuned up the wick to 11.
For starters, this movie picks up where the original left off, with the 4 zoo animals and the 4 penguins, along with the 2 monkeys (phew!,quite a list there), stranded on the island of Madagascar, off the coast of Africa, since their ship had run out of fuel. So now....
...oops, wait a second, I almost forgot! The movie actually begins with a flashback of a oh-soooooo-cute Lion Cub (supposedly called Alekay),being trained in Africa, by his dad. the Alpha Lion of the herd. Somehow, he seems to be more interested in dancing and performing(getting the hints?), much to his dad's dismay. He happens to get captured by a bunch of hunters, and his Dad chases the vehicle. In the melee, the box carrying him falls into the river, streams towards the ocean and lands in New York, where he is rescued and put in the Central Park Zoo... Initially afraid, Alekey realizes that the humans love his dancing and performing, and then, in a Bollywood style fast forward, we find Alekey to be....
Alex! The Lion (voiced by Ben Stiller)... too cool an intro to the movie. But why such a backstory? Well, lets find out... (Hint: There's a bit of the Lion King in this movie)
So, moving on, we find Alex and his buddies (to recap, Marty, the Zebra, Gloria, the Hippopotamus, and Melvin, the Giraffe), are at Madagascar, and figuring out a way to escape to New York... remember the old plane wreck in the first movie... well, with the Penguin's help (those guys are really cool), they have it ready to fly... off a catapult! And then we hear one of the funkiest songs of the first movie... yes, you guessed right, "I Like to Move it Move It..." sung by Ali G (also voicing 'King' Julien, the Racoon). Weirdly though, this time, it doesn't sound as nice as it did in the first movie, and it has been shortened in length as well.
Anyways, after the plane flies (for a while), it runs out of fuel...and is then accompanied by a really hilarious moment, The chief penguin makes a pilot's announcement, "Ladies and Gentlemen, this is your captain speaking. I have both Good News and Bad News. The Good News is that we'll be landing Soon. The Bad News?" Cue plane suddenly dropping like a rock from the sky, in the best tradition of the loony tunes, "...we're crash landing."
So our friends find themselves in Africa... and are desperate to find their way home... until they find a whole herd of animals of all varieties. Alex, of course, thinks that these African animals would be dumb and not understand English, cue... another funny dialogue, with him dancing and speaking in broken English to explain their plight,"Me... ALEX... Me and Me Friends... Fly... Fly... in Big Metal Bird...then plummmmmmeeeeettttttt, Smash Ground!", till one of the hippos says, "Is he dancing about a plane crash?"
Alex meets his parents, and here is where we see a hint of Lion Kingness, he must earn his mane. The others in the group, though, seem to have found heaven. Marty finds a herd where everyone speaks his 'Crackalacking language" and look identical to him. Gloria meanwhile, is on the lookout for a potential partner, and hooks up with the biggest and strongest hippo in the area, and Melvin, who is obsessed with health, gets to become a doctor and treat the other animals!
Well... all seems well in Paradise... until our friends realize that what they have got is not exactly perfect, and each of them have to find out exactly what is their purpose, and what is it that they ultimately want. In this melee, we also come across a cute love story between 2 characters (I'll let you guess who they are), which proves to be a nice point offsetting the gags otherwise there in the movie.
But truth be told, in the end, Madagascar never takes itself too seriously, and that is a good thing, particularly for an animation film. It would never amaze like Wall-E did, but then, it doesn't have it. It has improved on the first movie, and now ranks as my second favorite animation movie of 2008 (the first being Wall-E, and Kung Fu Panda coming in third).
Regarding the music, Hans Zimmer (cue many other movies, including The Dark Knight) keeps the mood lively and upbeat. In particular, the song 'Alex on the Spot', sung by Black Eyed Peas' Will.i.am, is a nice upbeat tempo which appears twice in the movie.
The characters have also been given good lines and weightage in this movie, with each of the 4 main leads having their space (though Alex seems to have a larger role). The Penguins provide the gags, the old lady who attacked Alex in the station in the first movie has a much larger part to play here... indeed, in some ways, she is the 'villain' in the script.
All I can say is, if you want a light hearted movie to make you laugh and lift your mood, and, in particular, if you enjoyed the first Madagascar movie, I would recommend that you see Madagascar 2, which, does indeed Hit the Spot!
